1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of expert computer systems and more specifically to a modular method and apparatus for interpreting data from multiple computer applications and accessing relevant on-line documentation to assist a computer user in solving an application problem.
2. Prior Art
An expert system is typically defined to be a computing system that embodies organized knowledge concerning some specific area of human expertise, sufficient to perform as a skillful consultant. Expert systems that have specialized problem-solving expertise are commonly used to solve problems in applications such as circuit layout, logic design, interpreting data, and diagnosing malfunctions.
Typical expert systems are designed to solve only one type of problem. For example, one expert system may be specifically designed to solve problems dealing with diagnosing medical illnesses; another expert system may be specifically designed to reach conclusions about the outcome of an election based on statistical survey data. However, neither of these two specifically designed expert systems is capable of solving a different type of problem than that for which it is specifically designed.
Today's personal computers run a wide variety of software applications that generate the type of information that is readily processed by an expert system. For example, a typical computer network program logs data about the frequency of occurrence of a variety of events on the network; a typical system monitor program logs information about the frequency of accesses to various components in the computer system; a user-application such as a word processor may log problems encountered by the user. In such a computer system, information from each of the individual applications may be needed to solve a given system or application problem encountered by a computer user.
Therefore, a modular expert system that is capable of understanding and analyzing the wide variety of data produced by individual personal computer applications is needed.